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.“Let somebody else get burned.God help them.God help them.I don’t want to know.”* * * *For some time now, R.A.Lafferty has been writing stories about the four men who know everything.A tricky subject for someone who doesn’t claim to know everything himself, but.well, maybe Lafferty knows things that you and I don’t know.(And perhaps he makes some up.)* * * *AND ALL THE SKIES ARE FULL OF FISHR.A.Lafferty1.Beware aesthetics throwing stones(We state it here prologgy).Oh by our fathers’ busted bonesWe’ll fight with dint and doggy!—”Rocky McCrocky” comic stripAustro was still only twelve years old, and Chiara Benedetti had just had her thirteenth birthday and so had to resign from the club.She nominated Austro to take her place.Ivan Kalisky had also turned thirteen and would have to get out of it.He nominated his little, fat, freckled, glasses-wearing sister Susie Kalisky to take his place.Susie Kalisky looked a lot like the Susie Kalusy in the “Rocky McCrocky” comic strip.There was another vacancy in the gang.One small boy who shall be nameless had been expelled when it was discovered that he was as yellow as a daffodil.Austro, as soon as he was confirmed as a member, nominated his dog for this other vacant place.“People will laugh at us if we have a dog for a member,” Dennis Oldstone said.“People won’t laugh a whole lot at a dog that can swallow them in one swallow,” Austro argued.“And there is a certain prestige in having the biggest dog in the world as a member,” Lowell Ragswell supported Austro.So they accepted the dog into their club.And they had gotten their membership in shape just in time.There was another group of young people around; these were pure-hearted and aesthetic, and they had psychokinetic powers that reflected their pure-heartedness.They danced willow dances and they wore sweet-gum leaves in their hair.And it had been announced that they would give a public demonstration of their powers.There was quite a bit of scientific interest in the demonstration.But the gang that Susie and Austro and the dog had just joined was more known for its fish fries than for its pure-heartedness.And it was known for its harassing of those aesthetic kids.In its reorganized form, it now took the name of “The Local Anaesthetics” to show that it was at war with the aesthetic kids.It had never had a name before this.* * * *Along about this time, Barnaby Sheen was opinionating to some of us.“We deal in facts at our place,” he said.‘We are open-minded, but we do not let just every wind blow through.We respect the new as well as the old, but we do know that some things must be rejected instantly.There are people around here who still haven’t rejected the pretensions of those willow-dancing, rainmaking kids.Austro, you have assured me twice that you don’t belong to that whey-witted bunch of squid kids, but I keep hearing tales about you.Assure me one more time that you’re not a member of them.”“By the busted bones of my fathers, I am not a member of the willow dancers,” Austro swore the oath truly.And that was the start of that.* * * *The willow-dance children were to give a “Sunshine and Showers” presentation right in the Civic Center Area to show their powers and to promote science and inquiry.They had the full support of the city magistrates in this.Our magistrates were all proud of those talented and scientific children, and we were all proud of our magist—“We sure do have good-looking magistrates in our town,” Barnaby Sheen would say with that forked tongue of his.“They’re not as competent as we’d like.They’re not as dedicated as we’d like.They haven’t much integrity.They bumble and they stumble, and they’re just not very smart.But they are good-looking.”“And it will be a good-looking show that they put on,” George Drakos said
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